Enterprise Data Access OLE DB Information Builders recently announced the enhancement of its EDA OLE DB Provider integration tool that helps integrate Microsoft® desktop applications with the enterprise by allowing users to seamlessly access existing databases and applications. Enterprise Data Access (EDA) middleware can provide integration with more than 75 different databases, 4 ERP packages, and 3 major transaction systems across 35 platforms. Users can extend Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) capabilities into the EDA infrastructure via standard OLE DB API calls. EDA provides application and data transparency through the use of a standard metadata layer, which allows cross DBMS/platform joins. Developers using Visual Basic®, C++, Visual J++®, JScript®, or VBScript can access any data source throughout the enterprise so that popular desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint® can act as OLE DB consumers, utilizing enterprise data via the EDA OLE DB provider. Information Builders Two Penn Plaza New York, NY 10121-2898 800-969-INFO, 212-736-4433 http://www.ibi.com Remote Access for Development Teams SourceOffSite Inc. recently released version 1.1 of its remote access tool, SourceOffSite Professional Edition. SourceOffSite is designed for companies with remote development teams or telecommuters who need fast and secure access to a centralized SourceSafe® database via any TCP/IP connection. Version 1.1 has data compression that speeds SourceOff-Site server operations by an average of four times over version 1.0. Additional SourceSafe project-level features such as Project Checkout and Checkin are supported in the new release. Finally, a separate 56-bit encryption build is offered for international users. SourceOffSite utilizes file compression to speed up file transfer (zlib), offers a C++/MFC client interface that resembles the Visual SourceSafe Explorer, runs on Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98, and works with SourceSafe versions 5.0 and 6.0. SourceOffSite Inc. 6 Dunlap Court Savoy, IL 61874 217-356-3213 http://www.sourceoffsite.com Track Traffic Sane Solutions LLC recently started shipping NetTracker 4.0 Professional and NetTracker 4.0 Enterprise, new Web-based usage tracking software designed to provide corporate users and ISPs with a solution for Web site traffic analysis. Both NetTracker 4.0 Professional and NetTracker 4.0 Enterprise contain new features designed to benefit ISPs and companies that are engaged in e-commerce. Features include the use of cookies for accurate user tracking and for linking Web visitor data with other customer data; the ability to archive older reports to save disk space, which reduces data storage costs; link tracking to identify which sites visitors go to when they leave a Web site; and server performance reporting capabilities. The Web browser interface allows decision makers from anywhere within an organization to access NetTracker reports via the Internet or intranet. Since NetTracker resides on the host server where the log files are stored, users do not have to download large log files to their computers. NetTracker 4.0 Professional is designed to provide marketing decision makers, Webmasters, system administrators, and ISPs with detailed information about the use of a single Internet or intranet site. NetTracker 4.0 Enterprise can analyze multiple Web sites, proxy servers, firewalls, and FTP servers. Sane Solutions LLC 35 Belver Avenue, Suite 230 North Kingstown, RI 02852 800-407-3570, 401-295-4809 http://www.sane.com A Corporate Portal of Your Own DataChannel Inc. announced the availability of DataChannel RIO 3.2, an XML-enabled package designed to build a dynamic two-way corporate portal with input (publishing) and output (retrieval) capabilities. New features and functionality have been added to this upgrade, allowing smoother deployment in a secure environment, managing documents, and integrating data. This release also includes the XML Java language parser codeveloped by Microsoft and DataChannel. Using DataChannel RIO's "Save to the Web" technology, users can publish directly to a Web server without using the corporate Webmaster as an intermediary. Corporate data can be saved to channels and folders so that it can be published and distributed to the appropriate users in an efficient manner. Enhancements to DataChannel RIO 3.2 include extensible security architecture, extended channel and folder capabilities, enhanced content management, and advanced XML Java technology. DataChannel's core functionality includes centralized administration and access control, instant content publishing, and personalized distribution and notification. DataChannel Inc. 155 108th NE Suite 400 Bellevue, WA 98004 425-462-1999 http://www.datachannel.com Out of the Box Business Solution Internova Corporation, a developer of scalable Internet business solutions, has announced the Colibri Engine for Virtual Business, a comprehensive development package designed to provide a virtual business solution out of the box. Colibri combines the simplicity of Web and Visual Basic-based desktops and the power of CORBA back-ends. Colibri can integrate Active Server Page (ASP) Web development with CORBA. The package includes a turnkey working sample system with a complete set of client source code, server-side templates, and sample code for extending and adding new services. On the service side, all interfaces are standard IDL. On the desktop, developers can use Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications or any scripting language and/or COM DLLs to extend the system. There are many optional built-ins provided to ease development, such as search and report filters, look-up editors for dynamic metadata modifications, specialized controls, and a reusable properties editor. With extensible plug and play throughout, Colibri often limits the need for recompilation and builds. Many built-ins can be reused and extended, with all methods available as simple service calls. The Management Console is designed with numerous easy-to-use features, accessible from Windows® 9x-based and Web clients just as readily as from Unix or Windows NT®-based servers themselves. The package includes full monitoring, security, privileges, and event notification management. Internova Corporation 15 Franklin Street Westport, CT 06880 888-638-5487, 203-454-4802 http://www.internova.com/colibri Integrate Dynamic Data on HTML Pages MegaWare, published by MegaNet Inc., provides new HTML extensions for database access and element retrieval and manipulation to Web site developers. MegaWare provides dynamic Web page content creation driven by relationship database technology. This can eliminate the need for custom programming so you can bring your site online faster. MegaWare is bundled with a full array of tools for searching, sorting, iteration, replacement, and summation—without having to delve into the esoterica of programming languages. Because the program is database-independent and scalable, you can do database appends, deletions, updates, and searches as well as e-commerce without continual HTML updates. MegaNet Inc. 10453 East Quartz Rock Road Scottsdale, AZ 85255 800-634-2909 http://www.mega.net Set Up a Small Business on the Web Mips Dataline recently started shipping VersaCheck Web Commerce, a product that lets any small business set up a Web commerce site. VersaCheck Web Commerce includes a Web transaction hosting fee that allows vendors to accept credit card purchases and bank drafts. The creation of a Web commerce site is completely wizard-based, making it easy to set up shop without dealing with HTML, the Java language, or other scripting languages. VersaCheck Web Commerce includes a small business accounting package and can export files to Quicken, QuickBooks, and other programs. Mips Dataline America Inc. 13240 Evening Creek Drive Suite 311 San Diego, CA 92128 619-679-4070 http://www.mipsdla.com Detect Visiting Web Browsers cyScape recently introduced BrowserHawk 2.0, a server-side ActiveX component for automatically detecting visiting Web browsers and their capabilities. BrowserHawk 2.0 extends the ability for developers to produce maintenance-free, browser-compatible Web sites and applications that support a wide variety of browsers. BrowserHawk is intended to help shorten development time and increase efficiency for dynamic Web pages running on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0-based servers. New features include the ability to detect if cookies are enabled or disabled, reverse DNS look-up for resolving IP addresses to host names, compatibility with Web authoring tools such as Microsoft Visual InterDev™ 6.0, new browser properties such as the JScript version, and several performance optimizations including cyScape DashCache technology. Information on more than 40 properties is provided, including the browser name, version, language, platform, support for cookies, status of cookies, Java, JScript and the JScript version, style sheets, frames, Dynamic HTML, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), SSL key strength, tables, table background colors, file upload capability, and dozens of others. BrowserHawk is also compatible with Allaire Cold Fusion. cyScape Inc. 8027 Leesburg Pike Suite 210 Vienna, VA 22182-2710 703-734-1000 http://www.cyscape.com Is that ISP Guaranteed? Infotonic Inc. recently launched Guaranteed!, its Web host quality assurance program. Guaranteed! helps individuals and businesses find reliable service providers by pinpointing companies proven to surpass the customer expectation. Eight Web hosts have earned designation as charter members of Guaranteed!, which provides an evaluation process independent of any Web hosting company. Qualifying Web hosts are selected based on feedback from each company's customers. The Guaranteed! program is integrated with ISPcheck, which currently allows its 4,500 daily visitors to search a database of 12,000 Web hosting, dedicated hosting, and Internet access service plans available from 3,500 service providers. A Guaranteed! filter has been added to ISPcheck's Web hosting and dedicated hosting search interfaces, enabling visitors to limit searches to service plans offered by Guaranteed! Service providers. Infotonic Inc. 1234 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 523 Washington, DC 20005 202-737-1806 http://www.infotonic.com Photo Quality Imaging Services Hewlett-Packard has unveiled seven OpenPix Internet imaging products, enhancements to HP ImageIgniter software and Internet imaging Unix system products. HP OpenPix products and services let users zoom, explore, pan, and share Internet photos and other images to examine the detail of clothing, jewelry, art, and so on. HP's software delivers high-resolution printing on the Web and provides image reports and usage analysis for Web site owners and ISPs. The OpenPix enterprise image repository provides a centralized, scalable imaging database to facilitate storing and managing image content. The OpenPix print integrator delivers custom-designed company printing templates with browser-independent layout control for photo-quality printing. Other products include the OpenPix image transport that eases transmitting images to an Internet OpenPix server from a PC desktop directly to the Web, the OpenPix application integrator that integrates ImageIgniter and any Web application, and the OpenPix hosting integrator. Among the ImageIgniter 3.1 enhancements is a 2x Java client interactive performance increase, and hot spot functionality that lets developers add pop-up boxes when users select a defined image area. Also included is integration with Web tools such as Cold Fusion 4.0, Homesite 4.0, Macromedia Dreamweaver 2, and Microsoft FrontPage® 98. Hewlett-Packard Company 3000 Hanover Street Palo Alto, California 94304-1185 650-857-1501 http://www.hp.com Extend Legacy Apps into E-Commerce Roles Esker has announced Corridor for Active Server, a software product that allows you to develop customer self-service applications by using existing data, applications, networks, and security. Corridor for Active Server is a new member of the Corridor family, which is tightly integrated with powerful Microsoft Web technologies including ASP and design-time controls. Corridor for Active Server lets you quickly exploit existing investments in tools, skills, and infrastructure to implement new host-based Web applications. It's a simple way for organizations to deploy e-commerce and e-service applications where host data is a component because there is no need to learn another development tool. It's designed around a multi-tier COM architecture for distributed runtime deployment so it can scale alongside Microsoft Windows NT. Because of its compatibility with existing host and Internet security systems, there are no special security concerns. A server-based runtime component processes the Web applications residing on the Web server whenever browsers access them. A design-time facility builds the applications for publishing on the runtime side. Esker S.A. 100 E. 7th Ave. Stillwater, OK 74074 800-838-2637 http://www.esker.com New Office 2000 Books Being Readied In the next three months, Macmillan Publishing's Que and Sams divisions will be releasing a number of books focusing on Microsoft Office and its component applications. Together, the two imprints plan to release about 60 new books. Que is famous for its line of "Complete Idiot's Guide" and "Special Edition Using" books, many of which will be updated to focus on Office 2000, as well as Microsoft Excel, Word, and other specific portions of the bestselling office suite. Macmillan Publishing 201 West 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 800-858-7674 http://www.mcp.com

Does your company provide development tools for interactive applications? We'd love to hear the news! Email us at newstuff@microsoft.com.

From the April 1999 issue of Microsoft Internet Developer.